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U.S. Attorney Wants To Sell 27 Alamo Properties

U.S. Attorney Conner Eldridge wants to seize and sell 27 properties in an effort to collect $2.5 million in restitution owed by convicted sex offender and evangelist Tony Alamo.

In July 2009, a federal jury in Texarkana, Ark., found Alamo guilty on 10 counts of transporting minor females in interstate commerce for the purpose of criminal sexual activity. In November 2009, Alamo was sentenced to 175 years in prison and is at a U.S. penitentiary in Tucson, Ariz.

In addition to the prison term, Alamo was ordered to pay $500,000 to each of the five victims in the case.

Multiple members of Tony Alamo Christian Ministries hold title to the properties, but authorities argue they remain under the control of Alamo and he has a history of using “nominee title holders to conceal his interest in real property,” according to an application for writ of execution filed in Texarkana on Monday.

The government is seeking 12 properties in Miller County and 15 properties in Fort Smith.

On May 15, prosecutors filed a separate action seeking seizure of six properties, including six of those listed in Monday’s motion; they contend were used to facilitate the sexual abuse of the girls Alamo was convicted of transporting across state lines for sexual activity.

Under criminal forfeiture laws, the government is authorized to seek the forfeiture of any real property with a nexus to criminal activity, regardless of the owner of record, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

In April, U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Bryant ruled that six of the Fort Smith properties could be sold to partially satisfy a $30 million civil judgment awarded to two former Alamo church members the evangelist ordered beaten as children.

A May 30 hearing to settle ownership claims to those properties by member of Alamo’s church was indefinitely postponed.

A stepdaughter of Alamo also filed claim against him for $500,000 she said she’s owed from a 1995 judgment against him in Crawford County. Christhiaon Coie was awarded $100,000 that she claims with interest has grown to more than $500,000.

The lawsuit was filed in connection with the removal of her mother’s body by members of Alamo’s church from a mausoleum in 1991. A judge also ordered Alamo to produce the body as part of the 1995 judgment, which members of his church ultimately did in 1998, while Alamo was in federal prison serving a six-year sentence for tax evasion.